Football lunches

Football lunches usually mean eating fried chicken and puso (hanging rice) with other football families huddled under the shade provided by a tent or the huge tree at the Sacred Heart School-Jesuit field at the Cebu Business Park.

Sometimes we have lechon. Well, I'll be honest, it's several times most specially during Saturdays with the SHS-J Football Club, which my son and I still join for practices on weekends.

Yesterday, I had a football lunch, but this time in another setting, at Café Havana, and we were not really seriously talking about what has or what hasn't been done about the sport, but more of sharing light banter about how things have been.

I was with Cebu Football Association (CebuFA) president Jonathan 'Maxi' Maximo and Charles Lim, who like me, also once served as director of the local football body.

Charles and I are both outsiders of the association now, but that doesn't mean we don't care about how things are going. Football is something that bonds many people together like the three of us yesterday.

Even the non-football dads and ex-players are starting to notice how the sport is becoming such a big thing.

The fever is fast spreading and hopefully this will also lead to more happy families that you see at the field during tournaments and practices.

The big problem of course is when parents get too involved and ruin he beautiful things that are happening about the sport.

While I encourage other parents to get their kids into sports, I also ask them to remember that let's keep our cool. When kids get into sports they're likely to get bumped and bruised or maybe benched and it's all part of the learning process.

Of course we would not want to see our children hurt, so it's best that you equip them with the proper gear and safety equipment.

Enjoy sports with the family. It's really a lot of fun.

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I would like to condole with the family of Dr. Guillermo 'Guimo' Blanco, who passed away yesterday.

Doc Guimo was a big Tiger Woods fan. Now he will be playing golf in a place where you never have to line up to wait for your tee time and the weather is always great. Maybe he's even teeing off now with Earl Woods, Tiger's dad who passed away early this year.

Doc Guimo will definitely be missed.